Hell's Rayne (Book 1)

Chapter 31

Those last words instantly had Jesse's attention, and they were far more than I could ever have hoped to hear. Jesse made to straighten up and I was tempted to follow him; cramp had started to set into my leg muscles and I'd been doing my best to ignore it up until then, but a harsh bark of laughter from Eric's lips stopped me in my tracks.

“Oh, now that's rich coming from you Maura.”

I grabbed hold of Jesse's arm to stop him moving any closer to them. Though what Eric had to say was probably irrelevant by that point, I still wanted to hear it.

“Can you just imagine how surprised I was that day when you rang me, telling me that Jen had been in some kind of accident. You were pretty vague with the details you know, but didn't seem to even wonder why I didn't press you for any more. You assured me she was still alive, which was surprising to say the least, but I didn't think too much of it. At least not until the guy that I'd hired to do the job rings to tell me that it almost wasn't worth him being there. Somehow she'd managed to fall off of a ladder or something, funny how she managed that when you were always there to help her with those damn window boxes. And you can't deny that you were there Maura, it was you who told me what had happened after all.”

“What?” Jesse muttered, echoing my own thoughts as confusion read all over both of our faces. Who in the hell was responsible here? And why was this stupid case never clear cut and simple?

“I never meant for her to die!” Maura shrieked, positively distraught. “I was just trying to take care of her other little problem, that was all. He wouldn't have wanted her any more once that baby was gone.”

Eric didn't seem to hear past Maura's first exclamation. “Oh please, I saw with my own eyes what had happened there when I found her. How long exactly did you stand there and watch her, bleeding and in pain, crawling towards you as she begged for help? And then you just left her there, called me instead of an ambulance. You threw her off of that ladder to kill more than just that bastard child she was carrying. What Anton did was a mercy compared to how you left her.”

I could hardly believe how Eric was trying to claw back some of the high ground in such a situation. As far as I could tell they were both as guilty as sin, but the time for action was upon us and I still wasn't sure which one of them needed to die for the corruption to take hold. Maura had claimed she never wanted Jen to die, but had left her as good as dead; bleeding and suffering. Eric had indeed intended to kill her, had hired some kind of hit-man – by the name of Anton as far as I could gather – to do the job for him, but it had been neither here nor there whether he'd actually done the job or not. She'd still have died, just a little more slowly. Both of their intents were malicious, Maura's to kill that unborn child, and Eric's to do away with them both. Neither was innocent, and I was beginning to get the feeling that they were both going to have to die.

Too complicated, this whole case was much too complicated for my liking. Something about it had never felt quite right from the beginning, and as I sat there listening to this whole twisted mess the more and more my thoughts were drawn back to Frank and his earlier words and warnings. Maybe he had known something after all.

While I found myself absorbed, once again, with my own inner turmoil, Jesse it seemed had heard enough and decided to make things much more simple. He rushed past me, in an act so reminiscent of earlier events, and slammed straight into Eric, grabbing him by the throat with one hand, the cutlery still clasped unnoticed in the other. It figured he would pick Eric over his own mother, I wasn't surprised.

“You had my sister killed! You evil, arrogant bastard.” Every word was punctuated by a violent shake as Jesse shoved Eric backwards towards the wall until his head cracked against the brickwork.